At their baseline, Stormtroopers are probably the best points-per-wound when it comes to having a durable unit that can trade efficiently in the Empire's roster. Their offense can feel lacklustre at first glance — but with the right support and upgrade choices, they become one of the most adaptable corps units in the game.
The Stat Line
The offensive profile — one white die per model, surging to hit — sounds unimpressive until you layer in Precise and aim tokens. That's where the unit transforms from a durable objective piece into something that genuinely threatens anything on the table.
Precise lets you reroll an additional die per aim token, increasing their effective value by 50%. Add Targeting Scopes for Precise 2 and a single aim action becomes the equivalent of rolling 4 extra dice — effectively doubling your action economy on offense.
The super squad upgrade deserves its own mention. Nine red-save bodies for 82 points (42 base + 40 upgrade) works out to 4.5 points per effective wound across 18 wounds — genuinely one of the best value objective pieces in the game when you need something that simply exists to score.
Weapon Profiles
The base white dice are nothing special on their own — consistent with surge to hit, but volume is low without upgrades. The heavy weapon slot is where the unit's offensive identity actually lives, and the four options each suit a different list architecture.
| Weapon | Range | Dice | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|
| DLT-19 | 1–4 | 2R | Impact 1 |
| HH-12 | 2–4 | 3B | Cumbersome Impact 3 |
| T-21 | 1–3 | 4W | Critical 2 |
| RT-97C | 1–4 | 1R 3W | — |
| Base rifle | 1–3 | 1W | Surge: Hit |
DLT-19
The consistent baseline choice. Two red dice at range 4 with Impact 1 gives you great poke from a safe position, a small answer to armour, and the ability to strip standbys. If you need a unit that can sit on a back point and contribute throughout the game, you can't go wrong with the DLT.
HH-12
The dedicated anti-armour answer for corps. On average you're rolling 7 total dice with the unit, hitting close to 1 crit and letting Impact 3 push nearly 4 hits through armour every activation. If there's an ATST, LAAT, or Saber Tank across the table, this is your gun.
T-21
The best all-round upgrade, especially with aim access. Four white dice with Critical 2 lets you punch through dodge-heavy units and plink armour when needed. It doesn't have the range 4 poke of the DLT — which tops out at range 4 vs the T-21's range 3, but if your list has other tools for overwatch standbys, the T-21 raises the storm unit's ceiling the highest — particularly in a super squad.
RT-97C
Highest theoretical ceiling with aims due to the mixed pool, but the lack of Critical or Impact makes it fall short against the specialised options right now. Could be solid in an infantry-heavy meta, but unlikely to make waves without a points reduction.
Upgrades
Heavy Upgrades
Outside of points this upgrade is essentially free — it grants an additional heavy slot so you don't lose out on your other weapons. Its special ability lets you exhaust the card to convert an observe token on a declared target into an aim, which turns a single observe from rerolling 1 die to rerolling 3 — a massive +2 dice advantage. The card readies at end of round. If there's no observe token available, you can use it to free-action place one. It pairs brilliantly with Moff Gideon, the SF Imperial Probe Droid unit, and Operative Kallus.
Gideon Hask — Range 1–3, 2 red dice, Coordinate: Corps Troopers, +1 Courage. Not taken often, but has a unique coordinate chain combo with a Shoretrooper and mortar when you have a commander or operative with Direct. Excellent for clearing your order pool when running bounty hunters or other independent keyword units.
Del Meeko — Range 1–5, 2 black dice, High Velocity, Lethal 1, Repair 2: Capacity 1. Situational — you only get real value if you have vehicles or units like IG-11 that want repairs. His Lethal 1 looks great but makes the unit even more aim-hungry. Consider pairing with the Probe Droid upgrade to offset the aim requirement.
Agent Kallus (28 pts) — Leader. +1 Courage, Demoralize 1, and grants an additional Heavy upgrade slot — so you keep your other heavy weapons when taking Kallus. His J-19 Bo-Rifle is Range 1–2 with Long Shot (2 black, 1 white dice). His melee exhaust ability forces an engaged enemy unit to gain 2 Immobilize tokens, which is brutal for locking down units in close combat. He is better suited in Riot Control units built around the melee-lock, but the additional heavy slot on storms means you can pair him with a T-21 for a massive consistent dice pool — a unit that contributes both at range and in close quarters that opponents genuinely cannot ignore.
Personnel Upgrades
Stormtrooper Captain — Guaranteeing an action on a turn can be the difference between winning and losing. The card can be exhausted at the start of activation to make the unit immune to suppression that turn — guaranteeing full actions. Also grants a Training upgrade slot, opening options like Range 3 standbys — a hard-to-deal-with threat from a corps unit that can move and take standby early in a round when there's nothing to shoot at.
Imperial Officer — Not taken often, but having Courage 2 on the unit is increasingly important in modern Legion, especially without access to Compel. The Officer also offers Inspire 1, which helps with suppression mitigation — something Empire can struggle with. Becoming less essential as the faction gains more Courage 3 commanders, but still a solid choice if your list is light on courage bubble.
Stormtrooper (extra body) — Hard to justify at 8 pts. The Specialist costs just 1 point more at 9 pts and gives you a Gear upgrade slot plus an Aim or Surge token on activation. Unless you have a very specific reason to want the raw wound, take the Specialist every time.
FX-9 Medical Droid — Treat 1: Capacity 2, Noncombatant. Turns storms into a support piece for expensive units like Vader or Death Troopers. Generally the Squad is the stronger pick, but the FX-9 has a place in lists where the support role is the priority.
Stormtrooper Specialist — Adds a Gear upgrade slot. On activation: gains 1 Aim token or 1 Surge token. Aim makes the most of Precise. The surge token is where it gets interesting — while storms have no built-in surge to block, spending a surge token on defense functions identically, giving them pseudo surge to block for that activation. A 6-wound red-save unit with a surge token sitting on a POI has an effective health of 18 — remarkably hard to shift. With Extra Supplies you can recover the specialist for a second token in the same game, effectively giving you two rounds of that defensive bonus.
The Stormtrooper Squad upgrade is your best value. Five additional bodies for 40 points (4.5 pts/effective wound), plus Indomitable which addresses Courage 1 with a 4-in-6 roll-off on suppression. Combined with Gideon or Kallus bumping Courage to 2, the unit almost never loses its full action economy. The range 1 coherency is underrated — you can place the leader contesting a POI while cohering all other models behind full cover, making the unit nearly unkillable from a POI.
Imperial Comms Technician — Grants the unit a Comms upgrade slot that must be filled. Most valuable when you need to clear out your order pool. A unique combo: equip a storm unit with Gideon Hask, the Comms Tech, and HQ Uplinks — expensive but it enables the full Gideon coordinate chain discussed above, letting you direct the storm unit, coordinate to a Shoretrooper, who then coordinates to a mortar. A precise way to strip your order bag of activations you don't want to pull early, especially useful when running units with the Independent keyword like bounty hunters.
R4 Astromech — Repair 1: Capacity 2, Noncombatant. A support choice for vehicle-centric lists. Pairs well with Del Meeko — together they give a vehicle 4 additional health recoverable over 3 rounds, equating to 6 more effective wounds on something like an ATST. Can also be used to remove the Broken or Ion token when you need to guarantee 2 full actions.
Generic Upgrades
The biggest recent upgrade to storms. Needs a Training slot — but not for Corps Troopers. Grants increased speed on the second move (effectively Speed 3 on move 2), for a total range of 14 inches. Can be discarded to give the unit Charge — free action economy when closing on POIs, historically storms' biggest weakness.
Most common builds: Kallus in the unit for a pseudo-riot squad that contributes at range. Or combine with Recon Intel for a 30-inch threat range alpha strike on turn 1 (4" Recon Intel + Speed 3 Imperial March + shoot). With Ruthless instead: 32 inches. Run a T-21 super squad for maximum alpha value.
Role on the Table
Stormtroopers are adaptable and can fulfil a variety of roles depending on how you build and support them. They can function as durable objective pieces with a secondary support role, or — when the list is built around them — as strong attrition pieces that trade up efficiently when fuelled with aim tokens.
Stormtroopers have no defense tech against Pierce. Unlike Rebel Troopers who generate a dodge token on every move via Agile and recover a spent dodge with Nimble, storms have no way to mitigate Pierce — a single piercing attack strips their red save advantage entirely. Keep them away from units with reliable Pierce output unless you have the wounds to absorb it.
Relevant Command Cards
Stormtroopers have no unit-specific cards, but several Imperial staples synergise directly with their playstyle — specifically around aim generation and token efficiency.
Starts an aim daisy chain that feeds storms aims to maximise damage potential. Get the most value from Precise by making sure everyone in the chain contributes before the storm unit activates.
Grants aims when shooting unactivated units. Split fire with the squad and you get two aims before rolling — essentially 6 additional white dice added to the storm pool for free.
Grants a token of your choice. Both aims and surges are great for Stormtroopers — aim for offense, surge for a massive defensive boost on red saves.
Works specifically with the Imperial Probe Droid upgrade on the unit. Gain maximum value from observes — convert the observe to an aim and give the unit Suppressive. This is the combo that makes the Probe Droid upgrade go from good to great.
Synergies
Overall the best support commander for storms. His 3-pip provides aims to maximise Precise. Strategies and Tactical combined with Exemplar means the storm unit is almost always getting tokens — keeping the Precise machine running every activation.
Cheap Compel is the reason — when suppressed, take an additional suppresion to move with your first action, allowing storms to march and shoot the entire game regardless of suppression state. He also provides aims through Exemplar and Spotter, keeping the Precise machine running.
Compel Corps Troopers lets your Imperial army march alongside Vader, whether that's through fire support or bringing FX-9 medical droids to maximise Vader's already exceptional defensive profile. Storms become the bodyguard corps that makes Vader's genuinely oppressive.
Currently the only Empire commander that generates surge tokens for nearby units through Exemplar — friendly units within range can spend his surge token as if it were their own. Since storms already have surge to hit built in, they use Tagge's token purely for defense — effectively giving them pseudo surge to block which they don't have innately. Combined with the Specialist, you can stack multiple surge tokens for both offense and defense in the same activation.
Ruthless adds 6 inches of effective threat range to the unit at the cost of a single model. Fantastic for closing distance or taking an aim action when you need to reroll 3 dice to kill something critical. Pairs directly with Imperial March for near-speeder-level mobility from a corps unit.
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Best points-per-wound corps unit in the Empire roster
- Red saves at a price point no other Imperial corps matches
- Versatile heavy slot covers anti-infantry, anti-armour, and poke
- Precise makes aim tokens 50–100% more effective
- Surge to hit on offense — consistent output every activation
- Specialist surge token grants pseudo surge to block — 18 effective wounds on a 6-wound red-save unit
- Tagge's Exemplar lets storms spend his surge token defensively — pseudo surge to block since storms already have surge to hit
- Range 1 coherency enables unkillable objective cheese with a LOS blocker
- Imperial March gives them speeder-level mobility for a corps unit
- Massive support upgrade access — medical, repair, comms, astromech
- No innate surge to block — relies on Specialist surge token or Tagge for defensive surge
- Courage 1 — must stay near a commander or lose action economy
- Aim hungry in a faction where most units are already competing for aims
- No defense tech against Pierce — unlike Rebel Troopers with Agile and Nimble, a single piercing attack strips red saves entirely
- Base white dice output is unremarkable without aim support
- Super squad and upgrades make them expensive quickly